Froma Harrop: Chinese moving to U.S. to escape deadly pollution

10:37 PM,
Sep. 7, 2013

Froma Harrop

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Froma Harrop

Thousands of Chinese are fleeing to the United States. We are not talking about impoverished peasants hiding in cargo containers. We're talking about millionaires flying first class and buying condos in the choicest ZIP codes. A big reason for this relocation, real estate agents say, is a desire for America's clean air, as opposed to China's suffocating smog.

Welcome to the new world of environmental immigration. These are not the "huddled masses" immortalized on the Statue of Liberty's poem, but they are - quite literally - "yearning to breathe free."